Saving Ruth Read Online Free PDF Page A

minute or two as the women ogled us, before being dismissed with a Y’all be sweet, girls!
    I was old enough to expect that they would say something about my chubbiness after I left, like the ever-familiar Such a pretty face, but. . . . I was surprised to hear something else entirely once Julia’s mom thought we were out of earshot.
    â€œIsn’t Ruth precious?” Pause. “Y’all know she’s Jewish,” she tried to whisper. My face had burned red, out of anger or embarrassment, I wasn’t sure. It was the first time I had realized my Jewishness was something people could whisper about like a terminal illness. Weight comments stung, but at least I could change that. The Jewish thing, not so much.
    â€œNo, they don’t feed us, Jason. I haven’t had one meal since last August,” I replied.
    He cocked his head and scrunched up his nose as if he were smelling something bad. “Well, I guess ya look good. Gonna be nice to see you in a bathing suit.”
    â€œHey, man, take it easy,” said David as he pushed himself up and out of the empty pool.
    â€œYeah, you perv,” chimed in M.K., her eyes glued to my brother’s flexed arms.
    â€œHey, M.K.,” said David.
    â€œHey, David,” she replied, blushing slightly. Damn him and his good looks. Even M.K., who’d known him since he was in Underoos, was susceptible.
    â€œSo, how’s she lookin’?” I asked.
    â€œWho, M.K.?” asked Jason. “She looks pretty good to me.”
    â€œNo, jackass, the pool,” I answered as M.K. punched him softly in the arm.
    â€œOh! Not bad, actually. We just had her mildewed ass cleaned, and now we just have to fill ’er up and shock her.” “Shocking” was pool-speak for chlorination.
    â€œJust in time to have twenty kids take a leak in that same water,” said David.
    â€œYou betcha,” said Jason. “David and I are gonna fill ’er up now. Want to help?” I glanced over at David, who tensed at the mere mention of me invading their afternoon, and my heart hurt.
    â€œUh no, that’s okay. Gonna head back to my house soon and take a nap.”
    â€œCool, cool. I’ll have your lifeguarding schedule tomorrow, at the swim team meeting.”
    â€œOkay, see y’all,” I said, looking to David for some sort of fraternal nod of approval. Something. Anything.
    â€œSee ya,” he said, mostly to M.K., and walked back to Jason—who was already jabbering about some sort of new pool-filling technique. M.K. and I climbed the hill back to the street.
    â€œWant to have a cigarette?” she asked.
    â€œDo I ever.”
    She smiled. “C’mon.” We trudged up another hill in the back of the elementary school.
    â€œHow many hills can there be in one damn neighborhood?” she huffed. M.K. lived right across the street from the elementary school—the very one we had met at so many years before. We cut through its massive backyard.
    â€œIs your mom home?” I asked.
    â€œShe is. She’s watchin’ Judge Judy .” Sheila was the mom who let us drink and smoke in high school. With her acrylic nails, tanning-bed face, and affinity for all things bedazzled, she was a walking cliché. That said, she had always been really good to me, and I adored her for it. Once, when she found me in their bathroom lying in my own drunken vomit, she had patiently cleaned me up and put me to bed without a word until the next morning.
    â€œI’m not gonna tell yer mama about last night, but you need to be careful, darlin’,” she had said over Krispy Kremes. “You ain’t cut out for that mess.”
    Before M.K. plopped herself down in her back porch swing, she pulled a pack of Marlboro Lights from her back pocket. We lit up in silence, the smoke hanging around us like a curtain.
    â€œI can’t believe it’s really summer,” I murmured. “This